The Martyrs Monument in Midway, located in Midway City Cemetery outside Midway, Kentucky

Midway, Kentucky

Midway is a city in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. Its population was 1,620 at the 2000 census. It is located midway between Frankfort and Lexington along the single-track railroad between them. It is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town is home to a...

, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on July 17, 1997, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky Multiple Property Submission. It honors four Confederate martyrs who were killed in cold blood due to the standing order of Union General over Kentucky Stephen G. Burbridge

Stephen G. Burbridge

-External links:* — Article by Civil War historian/author Bryan S. Bush...

, known as Order No. 59

Stephen G. Burbridge

-External links:* — Article by Civil War historian/author Bryan S. Bush...

, Order No. 59 which declared: "Whenever an unarmed Union citizen is murdered, four guerrillas will be selected from the prison and publicly shot to death at the most convenient place near the scene of the outrages.". The Confederate martyrs, whose names were M. Jackson, J. Jackson, C. Rissinger, and N. Adams, were executed on November 5, 1864 northeast of Midway, the precise location of which is unknown. This was due to the actions of Sue Mundy

Sue Mundy

Sue Mundy was a fictional guerrilla character created by George D. Prentice, the editor of the Louisville Journal, who opposed the heavy-handed military rule of General Stephen G. Burbridge in Kentucky during the American Civil War.-History:...

, a former trooper under John Hunt Morgan

John Hunt Morgan

John Hunt Morgan was a Confederate general and cavalry officer in the American Civil War.Morgan is best known for Morgan's Raid when, in 1863, he and his men rode over 1,000 miles covering a region from Tennessee, up through Kentucky, into Indiana and on to southern Ohio...

 that terrorized Union forces in Kentucky during the later years of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. They were buried in shallow graves originally, then buried in a Presbyterian cemetery, and finally in 1890 moved to their current location, with the dedication of the Martyrs Monument.

History

Sue Mundy

Sue Mundy

Sue Mundy was a fictional guerrilla character created by George D. Prentice, the editor of the Louisville Journal, who opposed the heavy-handed military rule of General Stephen G. Burbridge in Kentucky during the American Civil War.-History:...

 is said to have twice struck Midway in a span of two weeks, although some scholars believe that it may have just been men under Mundy, and not Mundy herself who participated (note also that the very existence of Sue Mundy is in dispute). On October 22, 1864, six expensive thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 horses were stolen, including one that was unbeaten in competition, named Asteroid. After a ransom was paid, Asteroid was returned to his owner, R. A. Alexander, ten days later.

On November 1, 1864, on another raid to obtain horses for Confederate guerrillas, a shootout occurred, with Adam Harper Jr. being killed on his property. General Burbridge ordered four Confederates imprisoned in nearby Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

 shipped to Midway. On November 5, Burbridge had a firing squad of forty execute the Confederates in what was then the town of Midway's "commons", forcing local men to watch the event. The fallen prisoners were then buried in a shallow trench, but on the next day were reburied at the former Presbyterian Church gravesite, where they remained until the establishment of the monument in 1890.

There were two other events during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 at Midway. The first occurred on July 15, 1862, when John Hunt Morgan

John Hunt Morgan

John Hunt Morgan was a Confederate general and cavalry officer in the American Civil War.Morgan is best known for Morgan's Raid when, in 1863, he and his men rode over 1,000 miles covering a region from Tennessee, up through Kentucky, into Indiana and on to southern Ohio...

 had his telegrapher George Ellsworth

George Ellsworth

George "Lightning" Ellsworth was a Canadian telegrapher who served in the Confederate army during the American Civil War, specifically with the cavalry forces under Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan...

, aka "Lightning" Ellsworth, send a false telegraph message that Morgan was not in Midway, but instead was going to attack Frankfort, and then threaten Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, with a force more than twice what Morgan actually had at his command. The other was on February 2, 1865, when a few of Quantrill's Raiders

Quantrill's Raiders

Quantrill's Raiders were a loosely organized force of pro-Confederate Partisan rangers, "bushwhackers", who fought in the American Civil War under the leadership of William Clarke Quantrill...

 burned the depot, robbed Midway citizens, and stole fifteen horses.

Monument

The monument is a 15 feet (4.6 m) obelisk

Obelisk

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...

 made of granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

. Other monuments to victims of Burbridge's Order No. 59, four in total, are the Confederate Soldiers Martyrs Monument in Eminence

Confederate Soldiers Martyrs Monument in Eminence

The Confederate Soldiers Martyrs Monument in Eminence, Kentucky, notes the burial spot of three Confederate prisoners who were shot while imprisoned. The names of the victims were William Datbor, William Tighe, and R. W. Yates...

, the Confederate Martyrs Monument in Jeffersontown

Confederate Martyrs Monument in Jeffersontown

The Confederate Martyrs Monument at the Jeffersontown City Cemetery in Jeffersontown, Kentucky marks where four Confederate soldiers were executed "without cause or trial", due to Order #59, the creation of Union General Stephen G. Burbridge, known as "Butcher Burbridge" in Kentucky, which called...

, and the Thompson and Powell Martyrs Monument

Thompson and Powell Martyrs Monument

The Thompson and Powell Martyrs Monument is a place on the National Register of Historic Places in St. Joseph, Kentucky, one of only three locations of the NRHP in Daviess County, Kentucky that is not in Owensboro, Kentucky....

.

Inscription

Rest

soldiers

rest

the

warfare

Oe'r

_____

M. Jackson

J. Jackson

C. Rigsner

N. Adams

_____

Shot by order of

Genl. Burbridge

Nov. 5 1864

In Retaliation

_____

Our Confederate Dead.